


Sad

by Radar_Girl



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, One Shot, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-16
Updated: 2018-01-16
Packaged: 2019-03-05 15:24:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13390683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Radar_Girl/pseuds/Radar_Girl
Summary: Sherlock and John know how to tell when the other is feeling sad.





	Sad

 

It's easy for John to tell when Sherlock is feeling sad.

 

The most obvious signs are the 3 AM violin sessions, sounding like cats being tortured, and the shooting of the living-room wall, even though it never really deserves it, despite what Sherlock claimed.

 

But, there were more subtle signs too.

 

Like the sudden obsession with reading every book in the flat. He would start by re-reading his own, never going for a moment without a paperback or a heavy hardback in his hands. He would start to read the moment he woke up, (even during meal times, not that he ate much) to the moment he fell asleep, usually on the sofa. John had even spied him taking a book into the bathroom, although he didn't want to think about that too much. Once he had become bored with his own he would rifle through John's collection of thrillers, usually able to get through one or two in a single day. Once or twice he would read one of Mrs Hudson's Catherine Cookson novels or even a romantic fiction.

 

“Enjoying it?” John would ask him.

 

Sherlock would either ignore him completely or simply shake his head.

 

That was another sign – the ever increasing quietness. John was used to Sherlock being the talkative one, except when he was focusing, but that was a different kind of quietness. It was silence with a purpose, but Sherlock's sad kind of quite was just emptiness.

 

He would watch TV just for the purpose of watching it. And he would do so without complaint, well, without the usual amount of complaining.

 

Experiments would become less purposeful and more explode-y.

 

Food went ignored.

 

Of course, this was Sherlock Holmes, and he could act this way and be perfecty content. He was the most complicated John had ever met and could never really guess what was going on inside his head.

 

Which it made it very difficult to know how to help him.

 

He didn't want tea, he didn't want to talk, he wanted to be both alone and not alone (judging by the way he would sometimes follow John around the flat while moaning that he had no privacy), he wanted to take a walk, and he wanted to sleep, but not sleep that much...

 

John felt helpless .

 

* * *

 

 

Sherlock couldn't always tell when John was feeling sad. At least, not until the moment that John would finally lose his patience and start shouting and that didn't happen very often because John was almost endlessly patient.

 

It was easy to look at the most dramatic signs and then work his way backwards, recalling the more subtle signs he should have realised meant _I'm feeling sad_ but didn't. Without emotional context they just looked like slightly different behaviours to the usual, a little odd, but then everyone did odd things, didn't they?

 

Like the fact that John would wear his favourite white jumper more often instead of washing it.

 

Or that he would eat more biscuits than he normally did, even though he was worried about putting on weight.

 

Or than he was a tiny bit more snarly and didn't praise Sherlock's brilliance as often.

 

Sherlock put it down to tiredness or hunger, because John's transport wasn't as well behaved as his own. But, never sadness.

 

They were tiny clues which on their own meant nothing, were just irrelevant bits of data to be deleted, but together they added up to something much important.

 

* * *

 

 

Over time John came to learn what Sherlock needed when it needed it. Sherlock never had to say a word, which was useful because he struggled to communicate when he was feeling really low.

 

He knew when to give Sherlock space and when to stay in the room, sometimes reading quietly and other times cleaning in order to make some noise as a reminder to Sherlock that he wasn't alone.

 

He knew when Sherlock really couldn't eat and when to gently push him to, but never to nag too much.

 

He knew when to suggest a chemistry experiment and when to hide the Bunser burner.

 

He knew when to let Sherlock play angry and screechy tunes on his violin and when to remind him that the neighbours had been threatening to call the police about the noise.

 

He knew when to keep his gun locked away and when it was time to let it out.

 

But most of all he had achieved the knack of being there for Sherlock without being _too much_ there and overwhelming him with his presence.

 

* * *

 

 

Sherlock dedicated a whole inside his Mind Palace to John. It was filled with everything that he knew about John. It was filled with jumpers and medical knowledge. But it also contained the signs Sherlock needed to know when John was sad and what could be done to help.

 


End file.
